There's a terrific post you should read by Rob B. Smart (who's whole blog Every Kitchen Table is must reading) titled Closing the Farm to Plate Knowledge Gap. In it, Rob addresses a growing tension between conventional farmers and "foodie" consumers in which both sides accuse the other of failing to understand the complexity and consequences of our food/farm system.

Consumer advocates for sustainable, healthy food are fighting with farmers, not because either picked a fight with the other, but because the knowledge gap between them has grown so expansive that misunderstandings rule the day. Credit the gap to industrial specialization and consumer marketing, which I will return to in a moment. Often times, these misunderstandings turn personal, further driving apart two groups that have much to gain by working together.

Indeed, you can see this tension firsthand in the post's comments, when M. Haley, a farmer, chimes in. There's good, chewy meat to gnaw on in his comment, particularly this:

"Why an I telling you this? because this is why “foodies” are more often being confronted by farmers, they are offended about the misconceptions about the products that we give our entire life, and the lives our family to produce. I am not going to disagree that most Americans diet has become unhealthy, in fact nobody is going to argue that a happymeal or microwave meal is healthy, but by saying it is the industry’s fault is misguided. Instead of trying to blame somebody else lets blame ourselves, the american society."

M. Haley's reminder about our freedom of choice needs to be a real part of the push for change in our food system. Farmers are giving us what we want and billions of dollars in food sales can't be wrong.To say that Monsanto and Smithfield control everything, even our brains when we shop, is divestment of personal power to corporations that we can't allow to happen. As Food, Inc puts it, we vote with our fork three times a day. So to blame farmers and Big Ag for our plight is not entirely accurate.

Personal freedom only goes so far, of course, and that's the counter to M. Haley's argument. If I can't afford the time-and-money alternatives to Dollar Meals and drive-thru fast-food -- or, more accurately, if I don't even know about alternatives to crap food -- there's not much I can do to change my diet. It's a chicken and the egg scenario, one that requires both sides of this debate, consumers and farmers, to make some hard choices about how they approach food.

But I hear M. Haley's point loud and clear. Farmers are not the enemy and personal responsibility has to be a huge part of the food revolution's equation. Let's all take a vow not to blame the people who work 80 hours a week to feed us exactly the way we're asking them to feed us. Yes?